Philadelphia Flyers head coach Craig Berube seemed to feel it. Why else did he have winger Jason Akeson on the starting line for Game 2, after Akeson’s double-minor penalty in the third period of Game 1, the pivotal moment at Madison Square Garden. The New York Rangers scored twice while Akeson, an Orleans native and former CCHL Cumberland Grad, was in the penalty box.

By the time Akeson emerged from the box, he might as well have been wearing symbolic goat horns on his helmet – a 1-1 game had become a 3-1 Rangers advantage, en route to a 4-1 New York victory. Lost was the fact Akeson, in his NHL playoff debut, had been one of the Flyers best forwards.

Now, it was Sunday, though, and Jeff Akeson was feeling it, too. Before the second period of Game 2, the Rangers leading 2-1, Jason’s father leaned toward his partner, Linda, in the MSG seats and said, “I don’t usually say stuff like this, but I think Jason’s going to tie this game up. I don’t know why, I’ve just got this feeling.”

When Jason hammered home a rebound to make the score 2-2, Linda said, “oh, my God!”

Chalk it up to a hockey dad’s intuition.

Jeff, a roads supervisor for the city of Ottawa public works department, was in New York because he felt his son needed “moral support” after the hard luck of Game 1, an errant high stick drawing blood from Carl Hagelin’s mouth, resulting in two enemy goals on the power play.

“I had to see him get the monkey off his back,” Jeff said.

Make no mistake, there were some tough moments of reflection after that Game 1 loss. Though he lit up the AHL this season – 24 goals and 40 assists to lead the Philadelphia Phantoms in scoring – Akeson played just one NHL regular season game, and one other in 2012-13 season, scoring a goal against his hometown Ottawa Senators. He was starting to wonder what he had to do to crack the Flyers lineup, until an injury to Steve Downie opened the door.

Suddenly, Akeson has played as many NHL playoff games as he has regular season games, although after Game 1, he couldn’t be sure he’d get right back in there.

“I’ve waited my whole life for this opportunity, and this happens to me,” he told his father by phone. Later that evening, though, he texted his dad to say, “I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

Impressively, veteran Flyers Scott Hartnell, Wayne Simmonds, captain Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, among others, went out of their way to comfort the rookie, reminding him of the “short memory” required in the mistake-prone game of hockey.

As Jeff Akeson says, “there’s no time for wiping your tears, just get back on the horse and get going.”

Just as quickly, the Flyers and Akeson have to forget they have tied the series, and look ahead to the challenge of Game 3 in Philadelphia Tuesday.

A few weeks before his 24th birthday, Jason Akeson’s road to the NHL has been marked by detours and doubt – the doubt belong to others.

Undrafted, Akeson signed a free agent contract with the Flyers in March, 2011, after scoring 108 points for the OHL Kitchener Rangers in 2010-11, tying the Ottawa 67’s Tyler Toffoli for the league lead. Akeson’s 84 assists were a franchise record. After a full year in the AHL, Akeson started the 2012-13 season in the lower pro reaches of the ECHL in Trenton, before climbing all the way to the NHL, scoring that career-first goal against the Senators. In three professional seasons, not one of his minor pro teams reached the playoffs, and so this Flyers playoff is his first postseason series since leaving Kitchener in 2011.

Somehow, Jason always knew. At age 7, he sat with his dad in the stands of what was then the Corel Centre, watching the Senators play the Dallas Stars. In the Stars lineup was Jason’s godfather, defenceman Mike Lalor, who had arranged tickets for Jason and his dad to see the game.

For two full periods, Jason sat enthralled, not saying a word, not so much as asking for a concessions treat. Finally, two periods into the game, Jason tugged on Jeff’s sleeve and said, “dad, this is what I want to do. I want to be down there on the ice.”

“Every time I tell that story, it brings goosebumps to my skin and the hairs on my back go up,” Jeff says. “It’s amazing to see your son grow up and live his dream, when you know that’s all he’s been talking about since he was seven years old.”

Throughout his career, Akeson has been told he’s too small, not fast enough. At 5-10, he supposedly didn’t have the size to play major junior. Then he heard the backhanded compliment he could make a decent AHL pro. Sadly, hockey development staffers don’t have machines to measure a player’s heart.

Akeson has the heart. So does his kid brother, Tyler, a former CCHL Smiths Falls Bears defenceman now playing with Niagara University. Also listed at 5-10, Tyler hits like a Mack truck.

“They’ve worked hard for it, good for them,” says Jeff, who plans to take in Friday’s game in Philadelphia and Sunday back at MSG.

“He just kept pushing and pushing and proving everybody wrong,” Jeff says of Jason. “He’s made us very proud.”